OHS Alert-Worker unlawfully relied on verbal safety instructions
(Article from OHS Alert 29/4/24)
A man has been convicted and fined for his role in a workplace safety incident, which was linked to his reliance on verbal rather than physical controls and led to a labourer being struck by a swinging crane load.
NSW District Court Judge Andrew Scotting heard Glenn David Page, who acted as the workplace's dogman, failed to comply with a requirement to erect barricades and signage around the crane.
The incident occurred in August 2020 at an Aland B&W Pty Ltd construction site in Edmondson Park.
Aland had contracted Alpha Crane Management Pty Ltd to provide crane services at the site, and Alpha engaged Page, a sole trader who held a high-risk work licence, as its dogman.
The Court heard Page established and maintained exclusion zones at the workplace by verbally instructing workers to keep clear of the relevant areas.
It heard the labourer was installing walling in a laneway at the site when he was hit by steel reinforcement bars that were being lifted by a crane after the crane's operator lost control of the load.
The two-to-four tonne load lifted the labourer off the ground and pinned him against a formwork deck until others could pull him down. He suffered multiple rib fractures, a torn rotator cuff, a lower back injury, and internal injuries that left him incapacitated for work until December 2023.
The Court heard that in the moments before the incident, Page thought the laneway was empty and directed the crane operator to lift the load of bars.
He then saw the labourer standing in the danger zone and yelled at him to move out of the way, but it was too late.
Page was charged with and pleaded guilty to breaching sections 28 ("Duties of workers") and 32 ("Failure to comply with health and safety duty–Category 2") of the NSW Work Health and Safety Act 2011, in failing to ensure his acts or omissions did not affect the health and safety of other persons, and causing a person to be exposed to the risk of death or serious injury.
Aland was also charged over the incident, and fined $225,000 in February this year (see related article).
In sentencing Page, Judge Scotting noted that at the relevant time, the labourer and others were working in an area where a proper exclusion zone should have been established.
He found that while the safe work method statement that Alpha submitted to Aland did not refer to the use of exclusion zones, Page had signed an SWMS from the crane supplier (Strictly Cranes Pty Ltd) that required him to establish exclusion zones using physical barricades and signs.
"By his plea, [Page] accepts that he should have established an exclusion zone using impassable barricades, signage and high visibility tape to prevent persons from entering the exclusion zone while the crane was in operation," Judge Scotting said.
"The establishment of an exclusion zone was a relatively simple process to undertake and would have caused minimal inconvenience," he said.
He said that even though Page no longer worked as a dogman, specific deterrence was needed as he was still working as a crane driver.
However, he also stressed there were "multiple failures on the part of other, more culpable, duty holders".
"The imposition of a large fine on [Page] would be disproportionate to his comparative culpability," he said.
The Judge noted Page faced a maximum penalty of more than $176,000, but acknowledged his limited capacity to pay a fine for multiple reasons.
He concluded that $8,000 was an appropriate penalty for Page, and then reduced this by 25 per cent to $6,000, plus $10,000 in costs, for his early guilty plea.
